A Turk is Forever
by Sirius Dogstar
Summary: The sequel to To Hold the World, Reno deals with what he has done but finds it is not easy...


A Turk is Forever  
  
By Sirius Dogstar  
  
"Man! You really pulled it off Reno!" Rude said as he greeted his old friend with a rare smile.  
  
"But at what cost Rude?" Reno replied, his usually jovial face darkened with despair. Rude shook his head, disturbed. There was almost nothing in this world that could wipe the smile off of Reno's face, not even the one time they had all put his briefs in the freezer. Here he had just pulled off the demise of Avalanche's base, even after they attacked him. He should have been strutting like a peacock as usual!  
  
"Reno?" Rude asked. "Is there something wrong?" Reno smiled, laughing to himself.  
  
"Is something wrong you ask?" he repeated. "No, nothing is wrong now. I quit!" He took off the pair of black glasses that adorned his head, revealing passionate eyes lined with tears. He tossed the glasses to the ground with disdain, and spat on them.  
  
"But Reno! You can't just quit the Turks! Don't you know that there are men who would kill to be one of us?" Reno smiled.  
  
"Then let them!" he replied, stomping upon his glasses with his full force. They shattered, black splinters of plastic and glass flying everywhere. He then smiled, as if a burden was lifted off of his shoulders. He started to walk away, and Rude could see where Reno still limped from his Avalanche encounter. "I have had enough killing innocents."  
  
"Come on Reno! You can't mean this! You. you know what happens to traitors!" With this Rude balled up his fists into an offensive stance.  
  
"Let them come Rude. It's not like I have anything to live for anyways," Reno said. He could still see the remnants of his adopted mother's purse underneath the wreckage of the sector, he could still see the blood and hear the screams. "But I won't go down without a fight," he added, running a finger along the electric rod he held at his side. "Even from you Rude." Rude sighed.  
  
"All right. I'll let you leave. I never thought it would end like this, but here we are. Are you sure about this?" Reno nodded.  
  
"I have never been so sure," he said as he walked away.  
  
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"There, all finished," Reno said to himself as he finished the stone off with a chisel. It was crude, a mere slab of rock that read in sprawled letters, MOM. But it was enough. He set it out in the Costa de Sol sea, where his mother had often took him as a child to play. She had always been happiest at those times, just watching him make little waves and splash anyone who ventured too close.  
  
But what was there left for him now? The only thing that he was ever taught to do was be a Turk. Well. maybe he could get a job watching that new villa on the beach. Or maybe.  
  
He froze, as he felt the gaze of someone's eyes. A reflex, before he even knew it he had a young girl's gun pointed at her own head. She was blond, and wore the obvious uniform of a Turk. Reno just smiled. "None of them had the guts to do it themselves eh?" he asked with a laugh. "Had to send a newbie?" The girl flushed, as Reno loosened his hold and gave her back the gun.  
  
"Man. no wonder Rude tried to talk me out of it." she said shaking her head. "I had no idea that you would still be."  
  
"Cut the crap Missy," Reno said.  
  
"It's Elena!" she yelled.  
  
"Whatever. Just go back and tell them I have no intentions of either dying or crawling back to them! I can lead my own life!" Elena shook her head.  
  
"You shocked them all by leaving like this Sir," she said. Rude kept your glasses in his pocket as a reminder, and the President wants your head at any cost." Reno smiled.  
  
"Good," Reno said. "Now relay my message to them before I decide that I need more practice with my rod!"  
  
"Well I never!" Elena said, her cheeks a furious crimson.  
  
"My electric rod," Reno said rolling his eyes. "I don't bed blonds." Elena frowned, but left as told. Reno smiled to himself. If they sent any more like her than he might actually be able to pull this off.  
  
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Weeks passed by. Reno got himself a job at the beach, as a security man at the local bar. He was very good at what he did, and soon able to rent out the villa. He was fitting in pretty well too, making friends and even allies. But one day, he happened to see Elena yet again. "Oh? Ready for round two?" he asked her.  
  
"Cute, real mature," she muttered. "But no, I just wanted to tell you that Rude is in the hospital."  
  
"That is none of my business Elena," he said coldly. "I am not a." She smiled, as she did a quick somersault and injected a needle into his neck. ".Turk. Erk. where did you learn that?" he asked, as he felt his energy leave him. She pulled it out, and moved in front of him with a smile.  
  
"I purposely let you think I was but some green fighter," Elena said. Reno nodded, as he ran a finger down the wound and then sniffed it.  
  
"Using Bright Lights of all things," he said shaking his head. "You know I created this poison specifically to not kill, but to immediately waste energy making its victim aware but unable to fight. Worked if I had to bring somebody to someone, or lecture them before they died." Elena smiled.  
  
"I know. Brilliant stuff, in fact Rude suggested that I use it."  
  
"Rude? But why."  
  
"He says that he does not want to have to read your eulogy before you are twenty," Elena replied. "He misses you terribly so, and it has shown up in his work. That was what landed him in the hospital ward, a botched up job." Reno slowly shook his head.  
  
"Rude? No way! Rude is the best!"  
  
"Not according to the Boss. He said that you were almost better than Tseng. and the fact that you signed a contract. Did you ever read the fine print Reno?"  
  
"What fine print?" Reno asked.  
  
"The one that says if a member of the Turks quits than the rest of the Turks are to be terminated for security reasons. That means that Tseng and Rude will both DIE!"  
  
"Look Elena! I am not a TURK! Do you got that?" he yelled, the light dosage of poison wearing off. That, and the fact that he had built up a partial immunity to it.  
  
"Fine Reno. You make one mistake and now you are being a baby about it! But I warn you that tomorrow at 0900, in Junon Square, they shall be executed!" Reno watched as she left, before pounding a fist into a nearby wall.  
  
"DAMN IT ALL TO HELL!" he yelled, tears on his face.  
  
"Anything wrong Reno?" his boss asked as he came out. Reno smiled.  
  
"Depends on your definition of wrong."  
  
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"Any last words?" Rufus asked the next morning. Tseng and Rude were hanging by their wrists, tied also at the feet.  
  
"No," Tseng said. Rufus looked to Rude, who just shook his head.  
  
"Then I has decided to execute you with a Bolt3. Goodbye gentlemen!" Rufus rubbed a finger over the coveted Bolt materia on a necklace, as Reno and Tseng prepared for the first. They heard the sound of lightning clashing above them, but oddly enough nothing ever came down. They looked up to find Reno standing one the board supporting the pair. Reno gritted his teeth, as the lightning was absorbed through the bolt armlet he wore.  
  
"Saying goodbye already?" he asked Rufus when the spell was finished. Rufus smiled.  
  
"These belong to you," he said, handing Reno a new pair of dark glasses. "I trust that you shall never waver again." Rufus walked away, a smile on his face. Revealed behind him was an equally smiling Elena.  
  
"You knew I would come, didn't you?" he asked. She nodded.  
  
"I didn't. Rude did. He was the one who agreed to stand here, who agreed to Tseng's little plan to bring you back."  
  
"Like Elena tried to tell you, we all make mistakes," Rude said. "We just don't let them ruin our life."  
  
"Besides, we still have to stop Avalanche," Tseng said.  
  
"Once a Turk, always a Turk," Rude said with a smile. "Friends and Turks forever?" Rude held out his hand, which Reno shook. The pair walked off together, smiles on both.  
  
"Oh and Reno?" Tseng asked. Reno stopped, and looked back.  
  
"Yeah?" he asked.  
  
"Take off that flowered shirt. You look like a dork!"  
  
The End 


End file.
